---
title: How to Clear Your Clipboard on Any Device | Relic
description: A copied password sits on your clipboard until something replaces it. How to clear your clipboard, and its saved history, on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone.
canonical: https://relic.space/blog/how-to-clear-your-clipboard
source: https://relic.space/llms.txt
---
[Your clipboard, explained](https://relic.space/blog/topics/clipboard-basics)

# How to clear your clipboard

Whatever you copied last is still sitting on your clipboard right now, and it stays there until something replaces it. That is a problem when the last thing you copied was a password. This guide covers clearing it on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone.

[JGJordan Gibbs](https://relic.space/authors/jordan-gibbs) June 29, 2026 6 min readUpdated September 12, 2026

The clipboard holds one thing at a time, and it holds it longer than most people assume. Copy a password out of your password manager at nine in the morning and, unless you copy something else, it can still be there at lunch, readable by anything running on your machine. Clearing it is quick once you know where the controls are, and they are different on every device. If you want the background on why the clipboard works this way, our pillar guide covers [what the clipboard actually is](https://relic.space/blog/what-is-the-clipboard). This piece is just the how-to.

## How do you clear the clipboard on each device?

* **Any device:** copy a single harmless character. It replaces whatever was there.
* **Windows history:** press **Win+V** and choose **Clear all**. Pinned items stay.
* **Mac:** in Terminal, run **pbcopy < /dev/null**. On macOS 26, the Clipboard view in Spotlight has **Clear History**.
* **Android:** open the keyboard, tap the clipboard icon, then delete the clips.
* **iPhone:** there is no button. Copy one character over the top.
* **Linux:** run **wl-copy --clear** on Wayland or **xsel -bc** on X11\. On KDE, the Klipper menu has **Clear Clipboard History**.

If you use a clipboard manager like [Relic](https://relic.space/), you can delete any single item from its history, and the history it keeps is encrypted on your device.

## How to clear the clipboard on Windows

Windows has two layers to think about: the single last item, and the longer Clipboard History list if you have turned it on.

### Clear the last item

The fastest method is to copy something harmless over the top of it. Select a single letter anywhere, press Ctrl+C, and the sensitive copy is gone, replaced by that letter. No menus needed. This works on every version of Windows because copying always overwrites the previous item.

### Clear Clipboard History

If you use Clipboard History, press **Win+V** to open the panel. On Windows 11, select the **...** icon, then **Clear all**. On Windows 10, **Clear all** sits at the top of the panel. That wipes the list, except for anything you have pinned. You can do the same from Settings: open **Settings → System → Clipboard** and click **Clear** under Clear clipboard data. [Microsoft documents both routes](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/using-the-clipboard). Our own [clear clipboard history](https://relic.space/how-to/clear-clipboard-history) walkthrough has the step-by-step with screenshots. If you have never opened that panel, our guide to [accessing your clipboard history](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-access-clipboard-history) shows how to switch it on first.

Pinned items survive a Clear all. If you pinned something sensitive earlier and forgot, unpin it from the Win+V panel before you clear, or it will quietly stay behind.

## How to clear the clipboard on a Mac

On macOS 26 and later, Spotlight holds a clipboard history: press Cmd+Space, then Cmd+4, then choose **Clear History**. Earlier versions keep no history, so there is nothing to open. Either way, two reliable ways empty the clipboard itself.

* **Copy something trivial.** Select a single character, press [Cmd+C](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/copy-and-paste-on-mac-mchl5252f3de/mac), and it overwrites whatever was on the clipboard. This is the one-second version most people use.
* **Empty it from Terminal.** Open Terminal and run **pbcopy < /dev/null**. That feeds nothing into the clipboard, leaving it genuinely empty rather than holding a stray character.

One caveat: if you use a third-party clipboard manager on your Mac, the system clipboard and that app’s saved history are two separate things. Clearing one does not clear the other, so empty the manager from its own settings as well.

## How to clear the clipboard on Linux

Copying a single character works here too. To empty the clipboard outright, open a terminal and run [wl-copy --clear](https://github.com/bugaevc/wl-clipboard/blob/master/data/wl-clipboard.1) on a Wayland desktop or **xsel -bc** on X11\. Both commands come from small packages (wl-clipboard and xsel) that may need installing. On KDE Plasma, right-click the Klipper icon in the system tray and choose **Clear Clipboard History** to wipe the saved list as well as the current item.

## How to clear the clipboard on Android

On Android the clipboard lives inside your keyboard rather than a separate app, which is why it is so easy to lose track of. The exact steps depend on the keyboard.

### Gboard

Open any text field to bring up the keyboard, tap the **clipboard icon** in the top row, then tap the **pencil** or **edit** button. Select the items you want gone and delete them. Gboard also clears unpinned clips shortly after you last use the clipboard, which is how Google describes it, so anything you did not pin tends to expire on its own.

### Samsung Keyboard

Open the keyboard, tap the **clipboard icon** (you may need the three-dot menu first), then use **Delete all** or tap individual clips to remove them. Samsung keeps the list until you clear it, so it does not expire the way Gboard does.

## How do you clear the clipboard on an iPhone?

The iPhone is the same as the Mac in spirit: there is no clipboard screen and no history, just the single last item. So you clear it the same way, by replacing it. Tap and hold in any text field, type or select one character, then tap [Copy](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/select-and-edit-text-iph1a9cae52c/ios). That single character takes the place of whatever was on the clipboard, including a password or a code. There is no built-in button for this, and there does not need to be, because overwriting is the whole mechanism.

If you are not sure what is even on it, the quickest check is to tap and hold in a blank note and choose Paste. That shows you the current contents without changing them, and you can then overwrite it if it is something you would rather not leave lying around.

Clearing it constantly is no way to live.

Wiping the clipboard after every password is a workaround for the fact that it leaks. Relic takes the opposite approach: it keeps everything you copy, searchable on every device, but [encrypted on your device](https://relic.space/technology) before it is ever saved, so the history is unreadable to anyone but you.

[Download forWindows](https://relic.space/download/windows)[Download formacOS](https://relic.space/download/macos)[Download forLinux](https://relic.space/download/linux)[Download forAndroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=relic.space.app&referrer=utm%5Fsource%3Drelic.space%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dwebsite%26utm%5Fcampaign%3Dcontent)[Download foriPhone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/relic-clipboard-vault/id6800556025)

## Is clearing the clipboard enough?

Clearing the clipboard by hand works, but it relies on you remembering to do it every single time, right after you paste, which nobody manages reliably. The deeper issue is that the clipboard stores things in plain text that anything on the device can read. Clearing it faster does not change that, it just shortens the window.

The more durable fix is to stop keeping sensitive copies in readable form at all. A proper [clipboard manager](https://relic.space/clipboard-manager) can keep the history that makes copy and paste genuinely useful while encrypting it, so a snooping app or a stolen backup finds nothing it can read. That way you get a history you can search instead of a slot you have to keep wiping. And for the highest-stakes copies, like the passwords and codes that prompt most people to clear in the first place, it helps to know [when copying a password is safe](https://relic.space/blog/is-it-safe-to-copy-and-paste-passwords) and when it is not.

## Sources

* [Using the clipboard](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/using-the-clipboard), Microsoft Support
* [Copy and paste on Mac](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/copy-and-paste-on-mac-mchl5252f3de/mac), Apple Support
* [Select, cut, copy, and paste text on iPhone](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/select-and-edit-text-iph1a9cae52c/ios), Apple Support
* [wl-clipboard man page](https://github.com/bugaevc/wl-clipboard/blob/master/data/wl-clipboard.1), wl-clipboard project

JG

Written by

[Jordan Gibbs](https://relic.space/authors/jordan-gibbs)Founder, Relic

Jordan Gibbs is the founder of Relic, an end-to-end encrypted, permanent, searchable memory for everything you copy. He writes widely about AI, agents, and practical tooling on Medium, where he is read by tens of thousands, and builds privacy-first software. Here he covers how everyday tools like the clipboard actually work, and how to use them without handing your data to someone else.

[Medium](https://medium.com/@jordan%5Fgibbs)[GitHub](https://github.com/jordan-gibbs)[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan--gibbs/)

Part of

[Your clipboard, explained](https://relic.space/blog/topics/clipboard-basics)
* [Your clipboard, explained: where it is and how it works· pillar](https://relic.space/blog/what-is-the-clipboard)
* [Clipboard history on a Mac](https://relic.space/blog/clipboard-history-on-mac)
* [Where is the clipboard on Android (and Samsung)?](https://relic.space/blog/where-is-the-clipboard-on-android)
* [Where is the clipboard on iPhone?](https://relic.space/blog/where-is-the-clipboard-on-iphone)
* [How to access your clipboard history](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-access-clipboard-history)

Keep reading

[Pillar·8 minYour clipboard, explained: where it is and how it worksEvery copy you make lands in the clipboard, a small piece of memory you cannot really see. What it is, how it works, and why it usually holds one item at a time.Read ](https://relic.space/blog/what-is-the-clipboard)[6 minClipboard history on a MacTahoe finally gave the Mac a clipboard history, tucked inside Spotlight. The shortcut, the 7-day limit, the password problem, and what to use when it falls short.Read ](https://relic.space/blog/clipboard-history-on-mac)[6 minWhere is the clipboard on Android (and Samsung)?Android keeps the clipboard inside the keyboard rather than its own app, which is why it is so hard to find. Where it lives on Samsung and Gboard, opening it step by step.Read ](https://relic.space/blog/where-is-the-clipboard-on-android)

clipboardprivacyhow-to